Essentials of a New Testament Church

The Church Defined

What is the Universal Church?

The entire body of Christ made up of every past and present person who has put their faith in Jesus Christ.

It is the citizens of the heavenly Kingdom of God.

What is a local church?

A Church is a local manifestation of people who profess faith in Jesus Christ.

The church is a people, not a place.

It’s a body, united into him who is the head.

It’s a family, joined together by adoption through Christ.

The word CHURCH means the congregation…

Listen to what Jesus said about the significance of the Church…

Mark 3:32–35 A crowd was sitting around [Jesus], and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” 33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus is pointing the higher significance of the Church over bloodline.

Acts 20:28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

The Church is the only institution that was purchased by the blood of Christ.

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus wants the world to know who belongs to Him.

And how is the world to know who belongs to Him and who doesn’t?

They are to see which people publicly identify themselves with his people in the visible, public institution he established for this very purpose.

They’re to look at the members of his church.

Jesus intends for his people to be marked out as a visible, public group, which means joining together in local churches.

Biblical Examples of Membership

Now, I want us to look at some biblical examples of Membership in the NT.

Matthew 18:15-17 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault…16 if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you…17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

The ability to exclude someone from “the church” presupposes that it’s known who belongs to “the church” as a member in the first place.

Acts 5:12-13 “Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.”

So, people faced the decision of whether or not they would join the church in Jerusalem.

This joining is more public and definite than an informal association.

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside.”

Paul called upon the Corinthian church to judge those who were inside the church, not those who were outside.

They were responsible for the testimony of those who belonged to the church, not those who didn’t.

This passage makes no sense if the Corinthian church didn’t have some public, formal means by which people identified themselves with the church.

Paul, in his second letter tot he Corinthians, writes concerning the man the Corinthian church had excommunicated...

2 Corinthians 2:6-7 “For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, 7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.”

This man’s exclusion from the church was by the majority agreeing to remove the Church’s endorsement of his profession of faith…because of unrepented sin.

You can’t have a majority unless you have a definite set of people from which a majority is constituted.

With that being said, in order to join a local church, someone should be:

A Christian.

Only someone who credibly professes faith in Christ should be a member of a Christian church.

Baptized.

Only those who have publicly identified with Christ and Christ’s church by baptism should be allowed to publicly identify with their church by membership.

(not talking about re-baptism)

All Members of a Church should strive to do the following:

Be a regular attender.

A church cannot oversee and affirm a person’s profession of faith if they do not regularly attend.

Without attendance, membership is meaningless.

Not speaking of legalism.

Not perfect attendance, but faithful attendance.

Be someone who confesses the same faith as the church and is willing to live as a Christian together with the church.

A Christian should be able to affirm a church’s statement of faith and church covenant. Only someone who agrees with the church’s stated beliefs and who intends to live a life marked by love for the members of that church should be allowed to join.

Be willing to submit to the leadership of the church.

If a person isn’t willing to follow the church’s leaders he will inevitably stir up division and strife. It’s best for him to join a church whose leaders he/she can follow.

Be willing to serve the body (the church).

Every member should be seeking ways to use their gifts to be a blessing to the rest of the body. There is no such thing as a Christian that is not gifted to serve.

Sometimes that may mean serving where your not best suited until someone who is better suited can take your place. But, the best scenario is you serving where you are gifted.

Be willing to speak to the Leadership about issues.

For the purpose of all parties understanding why things are done or not done.

For the purpose of Leadership being made aware of things they may not be aware of.

For the purpose of the Church honoring Christ and growing together in unity.

Now, I want to turn the spot light on the Church.

The Basics of a Biblical Church

So, what I want to show now is what are the basic foundational aspects of a biblical church.

Which will help someone with the very important question…

What to look for in a Church?

It is our goal that we, as a church, meet these marks of a healthy church…

And that we are diligent to keep them and improve them as the Lord allows.

Biblical Preaching

Biblical preaching would be preaching that seeks to explain what God is saying in His Word…

It is being faithful to the original meaning…

In order that we can understand and apply God’s Word rightly to our own life.

If we handle God’s Word carelessly…

We can end up not knowing God rightly…

And left to understand God in our own imagination…

To the detriment of our eternal souls.

Paul says to Timothy regarding his responsibility as a pastor to preach the Word…

2 Timothy 2:15-16 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. 16 But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,

irreverent babble = worldly insignificant foolishness/things that oppose God and His revealed will in His Word.

Another admonition from Paul to Timothy regarding his responsibility as pastor/teacher…

2 Timothy 4:1-4 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

v.2 is critical to fight off and combat v.3-4

Preaching the Word is one of the highest responsibilities of the pastor…

And it is one of the highest responsibilities of the church to make sure that it is done…

Frequently, competently, and biblically.

Did you know the word preach or preaching is used 80 times in the NT?

Preaching is critical to the church of the Lord JC.

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

So, biblical, expository preaching is foundational to a church having a…

Biblical Theology

What does that mean?

Theology means the study of God.

So, Biblical Theology means that we have an understanding of God that is based in the Bible…

And, the Bible is what informs our understanding of God…

And His revelation to us.

Also, because of the Bible’s theme being one of…

God created all things perfect, Man messed it up, and through Jesus all things will be restored…

Salvation is the foundational & most critical need of all mankind…

And the gospel is the Good News of that salvation…

A church’s message, preaching, ministries must be…

Gospel-centered

And, if all is to be gospel-centered then the preaching must be gospel-centered.

Preaching waste the core of Jesus’ ministry…

Preaching was at the core of the Apostle’s ministry…

And preaching must be at the core of the Pastor’s ministry…

And, at the core of the church’s ministry.

Ephesians 4:11-14 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Now, as a church matures under biblical preaching/teaching…(pastor’s growing, too ≠ have all answers)

We should become more obedient to the commands of Christ.

More marks of a healthy church…

And, I’ll go through these rather quickly…

And preach on them in more detail in later sermons.

Observes the Ordinances

Baptism

Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Baptism is for disciples.

Those who are in the NC.

Lord’s Supper

1 Corinthians 11:23-26 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So, Paul is quoting Jesus in order to instruct the church in how to observe the Lord’s Supper.

Paul says he received this command from the Lord…

For the purpose of instructing the church to carry it out and how to carry it out.

Paul closes with as often as you…

Meaning there is no command for how often…

Only a command to do.

Liberty in the how often…no liberty in the doing.

Biblical Understanding of Conversion

Biblical conversion is not because of our bloodline…

John 1:12-13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

It is not something that will come by osmosis just by having your children in church…

We cannot think that what the church does with your children is enough…

Or somehow it is a replacement for your responsibility to fulfill Ephesians 6

Parents, raise your children in the love and admonition of the Lord.

John 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

Romans 3:10-12 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

The images of our human nature that God gives us in the Bible are quite radical—images of being in debt, enslaved, bankrupt, and even dead.

We need change.

We need to be made alive.

We need to be born again.

And who does such a work? Us? NO!

We plant and water, but it is God who gives the increase.

It is God, we’re told in Eph. 2, that made us alive.

It is the Spirit of God who gives the new birth.

Conversion is a change of heart towards God.

It is a turning from sin (repentance) and turning to God (in faith)…

Believing God…trusting His promises primarily in the gospel.

Biblical Understanding of Evangelism

Evangelism is not about a program…

Its not about having the ability to argue someone into the faith…

It is about a church being made up of Christians who are willing to share their faith…

With the people God has placed in your path.

Trust that God will use you and give you the words to say…

Let me say it again…

Evangelism is Christians being willing to share their faith with the people God has placed in your path.

And, perhaps we do less of it now a days…

And, we’re less successful at it now a days because we’re too busy to build relationships…

And, we’ve somehow, unbiblically decided to leave it to the “professionals.”

We don’t need a program of evangelism…

We need a willingness to evangelize.

Closing Prayer